Welcome back, students. As your student body president for the next year, I’m thrilled about our returning students and amazing freshman class-one of the largest in years.
There has perhaps never been a more exciting time in Mississippi State’s history. As Mississippi’s flagship university, MSU is the largest institution in the state, a leader in the South in academic achievement, and a trend-setter nation-wide in research and economic development.
These things have been well established, however. The real excitement for you here is found in Mississippi State’s progress. You’ll find it in new buildings and roads that will soon adorn our campus, such as a soon-to-be renovated student Union; the Cullis Wade Depot, featuring a 30,000 square foot Barnes & Noble, a Starbucks Coffee Shop, a Museum and a Welcome Center; large additions to the College of Business and Industry; and a large new home for the University Honors Program-Bryce Griffis Residence Hall.
You’ll find our progress in the Bulldog coaches and athletes who are taking us to the next level in sports, like Sylvester Croom, Ron Polk, Rick Stansbury, Sharon Fanning and all of our amazing new recruits. You’ll find it in our new administration-proven leaders in academia from across the nation that have vowed to take MSU to an even higher playing field in academics, scholarship and social life. You’ll find it in our home away from home-Starkville-a city that is quickly becoming an exciting college town of which everyone can be proud.
And you’ll also find excitement among yourselves. As one of the most skilled, talented, lively and qualified groups to come and return to this institution, you will be surrounded by successful and worthy individuals in the classroom, in your residence hall, out on the town and in your extracurricular activities. Moreover, you have the opportunity to be here at this important time in our university’s history and to shape it for the future. You’ll have to search diligently for another university that will let you leave your mark on its campus as much as Mississippi State will.
Being a Bulldog, however, is not just about the future, or even the present. Here, we also focus heavily on the past. Steeped in history and tradition, the People’s University is a place where, as you will soon discover, you become something greater than yourself. Students here are bonded with the same maroon that is hailed by bestselling authors (John Grisham) and major league baseball players (Raphael Palmero). Students walk Mississippi State’s most hallowed ground-the Drill Field-and know that their footsteps are mingled with not only these authors’ and athletes’ but also Mississippi’s greatest statesmen, like Sonny Montgomery and John C. Stennis. We ring the same Cowbell and sing the same “Hail State” that generations have before. And though, on the first day of class, you may have come to The Drill as a Bulldog fan, you surely left as a Bulldog, bearing the Maroon and White.
In closing, I want you to know that you’re at your institution at a very exciting time. There is an aura here on campus that is unparalleled by like institutions near and far. You will experience triumphs and trials, journey through growth and learning, and eventually enter life as a Mississippi State man or woman. Please, use your time at Mississippi State to the fullest, and know that here, you are daily experiencing something special that millions could only dream of sharing.
I hope you have a blessed year. Welcome to Mississippi State.